La belle Dame sans Merci Flashcards
what does La Belle Dame Sans Merci mean
The beautiful lady without mercy
Plot summary:
What is the plot summary?
The poem is about a knight who meets a beautiful lady who charms him.
She takes him to a magical place, but soon leaves him lifeless.
The poem shows how love and beauty can be dangerous.
Quotes:
There are 3
‘Alone and palely loitering’ - lost and no purpose- contradiction from the depiction of a stereotypical knight.
‘A garland for her head and bracelets too’ - symbols of love and passion. could they also symbolise him entrapping her - circle semantic field
‘Pale warriors (…) they cried La Belle Dame sans Merci’ - masculinity and patriarchy. is the lady the villain. she has done this multiple times.
Aspects of tragedy: Tragic hero’s or tragic victims:
How is the knight the tragic victim/hero?
Tragic victim:
The ends the poem in a limbic condition, he is either alive or dead, nether up or down and capable only of relating his story to passers by.
The knight is a victim of masculinity in society/ the lady’s cruelty.
Tragic villain:
Keats only allows us to guess at the knights life before his encounter with the lady and hence see at the height that he knight has fallen.
The knight is a villain in wanting to keep the lady and not letting her go.
Aspects of tragedy: Resolution
How can resolution be seen and not be seen?
In most dramatic tragedies the resolution is brought about by the deaths of many of the major characters.
However in La Belle the despair s absolute. ‘and nor birds sing’ closes the poem and leaves no room for hope.
This is a deviation from the usual pattern of dramatic tragedies
this leaves the reader to feel no catharsis.
